Jes Reynolds…Your Fitness Coach

Since my “How I Got Started in Fitness” post was so popular, I decided (under the tutelage of an unnamed website coach) to do a few posts about the sport I am passionate for…volleyball.

I play volleyball at least once a week all year round.  I’ve been playing indoor volleyball since 6^th grade and I played every year all through high school including AAU teams (ah those were the days).  I became very good toward the end of high school but opted to play on a club team during college instead of participating in it as a varsity sport.

While I’ve had an occasional break in play since middle school, I’d have to say that volleyball games and tournaments have been a constant in my life ever since I started the sport.  I’ll mention again that most of my time has been spent playing indoor and although over the years I’ve moonlighted with sand volleyball, I never really developed a ‘game’.  I just used my indoor game to play in the sand, which is why I was never very good.

BUT this year…I hit the jack pot!  A very experienced sand player asked me to be his co-ed doubles partner for the year.  Meet Ron…

The real Ron

Ron and his cool girlfriend JoAnne

Ron singing...(priceless)

While I know he looks really friendly in the photos it might surprise you to know that Ron and I have known each other for years but never really got along.  The first time we met included me screaming at Ron across the volleyball court at the bar league regarding the score and the readiness of the players (we were on opposing teams).  Since that day it’s been standard for our discussions to start out really well, somehow turn ugly, and occasionally include me getting up to walk away.

Notice the flag in background.

Thankfully something shifted this year, otherwise we’d be in major trouble.  As it happens, Ron and I played and practiced together all year in peace (miracle).  And even more than that, we actually got into a really positive groove of friendship, teamwork, and VICTORY!  Maybe that’s the beauty of having a common goal and being passionate about it; you can find a way to make things work.   I grew to really enjoy the dynamic between myself and my once hated coach/partner (ok hate is a strong word but it works for the story).

On my end, I found it was fun to have a coach telling me (queen of bossy) what to do and how to improve.  In fact I welcomed it (most of the time) because it took the pressure off me to figure things out for myself and coach myself while also trying to play the game.  For once it was my turn to be the student and it felt great to have a coach be so patient with me while I learned new and different aspects of the game.

Having a coach also helped me see the value personal training and monthly workout plans.  I experienced the reassurance of having support, coaching, and correction as my coach and I worked toward a common goal. THANK YOU RON

Again notice the flag!

So far, Ron and I managed to win the AA co-ed league open division.  But alas, we went to my first (his 1 millionth) tournament and of course Ron puts us in the highest division.  The weather was absolutely beautiful.  I had just one small factor to contend with…30 mph winds blowing diagonally across the court!  In fact, I can’t believe there wasn’t a hurricane blip on the radar during our tournament.  That’s how hard the wind was blowing.

Great.

For someone like me the diagonal wind basically spelled toilet bowl bracket.  After practicing and playing all year, I wasn’t even close to ready to adjust to the wind.  My serves sucked all day long and so did my offense since every time I went up to hit the ball flew in an s-shaped swivel back and fourth in front of my hand.

Workin' on my skills

While our record for the day ended up being fairly embarrassing, I will admit that there were many positives that came out of this day of new challenges.

• Playing against these experienced and high level sand players challenged me.
• It was the first time in years I was able to get ‘in the zone’ during a game
• I saw in myself the glimmer of a budding game as a sand player

All-in-all three really good things for a day spent doing what I love, being in the sun, and swimming in the huge beautiful waves.  It was an awesome first tournament even though Ron forced me to play at a higher level than I was ready for.  We’ve got another one coming up in a week, so I’ll keep you posted on how it goes!

As most of you know, my name is Jes Reynolds and I’m a personal trainer in the Ann Arbor area.  I started this blog to educate people about health, fitness, and related topics and I also contribute to AnnArbor.com on health and fitness topics.  To have some fun and share some insights into the life of a trainer (and we see it all!).

It’s been brought to my attention that a number of you would like to learn more about me as a person.  I’m sure gym members get all kinds of ideas about me as they watch me zoom around the gym either with a client or my Ipod blasting away as I work out myself.  I thought I would re-post what I wrote to introduce myself to the AnnArbor.com readers.  It’s kindof funny and it gives some insight into me as a person.

In the future, I’ll do my best to share some info on what motivates me to train the way I do, my insights into health and fitness as a lifestyle, and maybe a little bit about my own personal athletic pursuits (aka I just won the Ann Arbor Open Division for Co-Ed Sand Doubles last night!)

So here’s the initial post I did for aa.com…if you guys are actually interested in reading more stuff like this, let me know as I didn’t realize it would be that interesting to people…..

My mother once told me personal training was the perfect job for me because I get to boss people around all day. Well, she was right. In the following few paragraphs I’ll try to give you a brief overview of how I decided that fitness, instead of running for president, was the perfect outlet for my intense bossiness.

I started my love affair with sports and fitness at the age of 8, when mom dragged me kicking and screaming to the Pinckney Community Pool to be a part of the swim team. Suspicions that arose during practice were confirmed after the first meet, I was officially the worst swimmer on the team. But for some reason (most likely the cute boys) that didn’t stop me and I kept at it all the way through high school.

I picked up volleyball in middle school and my career riding the pine (bench warmer) continued. As high school volleyball tryouts approached I was sure I would never make it, but thankfully, there was room for me on the bench in high school too. Around that second year of high school volleyball something started to change. I’m not sure if someone put a spell on me or what, but I finally came into my own as an athlete that year. I never looked back.

Thanks to my high school weights teacher Mrs. Mate, I started learning about nutrition and fitness as lifestyle apart from athletics (yes still stuck in high school time warp) and it was the combination of the two that planted the seed for my life-long passion for health, fitness, and nutrition. I went on to earn a B.S. in Kinesiology from my beloved Michigan State University (GO GREEN!).

Living and teaching the fitness lifestyle is a passion and joy for me. Because of my education and training as a trainer I’ve been fortunate enough to develop a unique perspective on fit living and a distinctive personal training style. This combined with my bossy nature and intense personality allows me to channel what some may consider my negative qualities into a positive outlet. I work with individuals of all levels and I love it!

Over time I found that even though I love the one-on-one setting of personal training, it simply didn’t allow me to boss enough people around. In hopes of reaching more people with my bossy yet well-informed message, I started a blog: http://JesReynolds.com that includes lots of educational fitness tips and information. As an official Ann Arbor resident, it is my hope to use my training, my blog, and my voice as a community contributor to be a voice in creating a healthier, more fit community.

Well guys, it’s official.  I became a contributor and wrote my first post for Ann Arbor.com today.  I have some really great ideas about what to write, and hopefully I can do a good job.  I tried to make my introductory post entertaining and funny while also sharing a little about myself.  You might find out some funny unknown facts about me if you decide to check it out.

Anyway, here is the first little bit and if you want to read the rest you have to visit the link at the bottom.  Hope it brings you a smile!

Hi, my name is Jes Reynolds. I’m a personal trainer in the Ann Arbor area, and I’ll be blogging each week about fitness and nutrition topics.

My mother once told me personal training was the perfect job for me because I get to boss people around all day. Well, she was right. In the following few paragraphs I’ll try to give you a brief overview of how I decided that fitness, instead of running for president, was the perfect outlet for my intense bossiness.

You can check out the rest of my first post by visiting this page on AnnArbor.com